Russell: 'Unnecessary' Max crash felt deliberate

BARCELONA, Spain -- George Russell said Max Verstappen's determination connected him felt deliberate and suggested the four-time satellite champion is simply a atrocious illustration for kids watching Formula 1.

Verstappen drove into the broadside of Russell's car in the closing moments of the race aft being asked to fto the Mercedes operator backmost past, pursuing an incidental respective laps earlier.

It was unclear whether Verstappen had driven into Russell intentionally oregon if helium had attempted to fto the Mercedes backmost past and past overtake again and simply misjudged the corner.

Russell was successful nary uncertainty which of those it was.

"It felt precise deliberate, to beryllium honest," Russell said aft the race. "It's thing that I've seen galore times successful sim racing and connected iRacing. Never person I seen it successful a Formula 1 race. So that was thing new.

"It's a spot of a shame due to the fact that Max is intelligibly 1 of the champion drivers successful the world. But manoeuvres similar that are conscionable wholly unnecessary and benignant of lets him down. It's a shame for each the young kids looking up, aspiring to beryllium Formula 1 drivers. So, arsenic I said, I don't cognize what helium was thinking. In the end, I'm not going to suffer slumber implicit it due to the fact that I yet benefited from those antics."

When asked if Verstappen should person been disqualified, Russell said: "Honestly, I request to look backmost connected it. If it was genuinely deliberate, past absolutely. Because you cannot deliberately clang into different driver. We're putting our lives connected the line. We're fortunate the cars are arsenic harmless arsenic they are these days, but we shouldn't instrumentality it for granted. As I said, it's down to the stewards to find if it's deliberate oregon not."

When told astir Russell's comments erstwhile helium arrived successful the written media pen after, Verstappen simply said: "I'll bring immoderate tissues adjacent time".